The Brian Long Best Doctoral Thesis in Canadian Studies

The ICCS named one of our most important awards in honour of Brian Long, who passed away on 26 May 2017.

Brian Long was a good friend of Canadian Studies. He worked for the then Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade from September 1972 until 2000. He served in London doing cultural and information work, then spent some time in NATO, Brussels and Vienna, working on the Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction Talks between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. He returned to Ottawa working in the area of security of embassies and privileges and immunities. He was then posted to Buenos Aires, Argentina with accreditation also to Uruguay and Paraguay, acting as Second Secretary and Vice Consul. He returned to Ottawa and worked with international academic relations until his retirement with responsibilities for Canada’s scholarship and scholarly exchange programs, the program of Canadian Studies, departmental history, and youth exchanges. He then left to join the Commonwealth of Learning, the only Commonwealth Agency located outside London, UK, helping Commonwealth Governments ensure access to education for all their citizens, especially for those living in extreme poverty.

OBJECTIVE

This ICCS Award is designed to recognize and promote each year an excellent PhD thesis on a Canadian topic which contributes to outstanding scholarship on Canada written by a member (or one of his/her PhD students) of a Canadian Studies Association or Associate Member.

APPLICATION RULES

  • Every member association or associate member of the ICCS can submit annually one PhD thesis written in any language, which has been successfully defended within the preceding two years;
  • The thesis must be a scholarly monograph dealing mainly with a Canadian topic. Comparative works are eligible if the Canadian content is 50% or more;
  • The Grant and Awards Committee of ICCS will act as the jury. Its judgment will be based on a 15-20 page summary of the thesis and on an assessment report, written in French or in English, provided by the external reviewers previously contacted;
  • The author or the director of the thesis will include with the submission dossier a list of five specialists (including university affiliation, address, e-mail, etc.), one of whom will be asked to provide a detailed report in French or in English on the merit of the thesis;
  • Works not selected will not be kept on file for the following year’s competition. However, associations may re-submit works as long as the two-year period is not exceeded;
  • The Award is comprised of a document signed by the President of the ICCS.
  • The Award includes a limited allowance toward travel and lodging expenses, in order for the recipient to travel to Toronto to officially receive the Award at the Annual General Meeting of the ICCS.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

  • The author or the director of the thesis must be a member in good standing of a member association or of an associate member of the ICCS.
  • The application must be presented by the president of a member association or associate member, and include an electronic version of the thesis.

DEADLINE

The deadline for submission is November 24 .

PROCEDURE

An application must contain the following: 

  1. An electronic version of the thesis being submitted;
  2. a 15-20 page summary in French or English;
  3. a curriculum vitae of the author;
  4. at least two examiner reports in English or French;
  5. a list of five specialists (including address, university affiliation, e-mail, etc.) able to read and provide in French or English a detailed assessment of the work submitted;
  6. a letter from the president of the member association or associate member supporting the application.

2024 WINNER

Claire Thomson, “Digging Roots and Remembering Relatives: Lakota Kinship and Movement in the Northern Great Plains from the Wood Mountain Uplands across Lakóta Tȟamákȟočhe Lakota Country, 1881–1940,” University of Alberta, Canada

2023 WINNER

Margaret Anne Lindsay, “‘especially in this free Country’, Webs of Empire, Slavery and the Fur Trade”, Department of History, University of Manitoba, 2021.

2022 WINNER 

Marie-Charlotte Franco, “La décolonisation et l’autochtonisation au Musée McCord (1992-2019) : les rapports de collaboration avec les Premiers Peuples et de l’inclusion de l’art contemporain des Premières Nations dans les expositions,” Department in Museology, Mediation and Heritage, Université du Québec à Montréal, 2020.

2021 WINNER 

Melanie Dennis Unrau, “Tend the Rusted Steel Like a Shepherd: Petropoetics of Oil Work in Canada,” Department of English, Theatre, Film, and Media, University of Manitoba, 2019.

2020 WINNER 

Warren Bernauer, “Extractive Hegemony in the Arctic: Energy Resources and Political Conflict in Nunavut, 1970–2017”

CONTACT

Requests for further information or submissions may be addressed to:

International Council for Canadian Studies
c/o Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, York University
723 Kaneff Tower
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada

iccsciec[at]yorku.ca